Page 213 - for-the-term-of-his-natural-life

were never made to be a convict, man!’
Rex smiled. ‘Good-bye, Mr. Bates, and God preserve
you!’
‘Good-bye,’ says Bates, rubbing his hat off his face, ‘and
I—I—damme, I hope you’ll get safe off—there! for liberty’s
sweet to every man.’
‘Good-bye, prisoners!’ says Sylvia, waving her handker-
chief; ‘and I hope they won’t catch you, too.’
So, with cheers and waving of handkerchiefs, the boat
departed.
In the emotion which the apparently disinterested con-
duct of John Rex had occasioned the exiles, all earnest
thought of their own position had vanished, and, strange
to say, the prevailing feeling was that of anxiety for the ulti-
mate fate of the mutineers. But as the boat grew smaller and
smaller in the distance, so did their consciousness of their
own situation grow more and more distinct; and when at
last the boat had disappeared in the shadow of the brig, all
started, as if from a dream, to the wakeful contemplation of
their own case.
A council of war was held, with Mr. Frere at the head of
it, and the possessions of the little party were thrown into
common stock. The salt meat, flour, and tea were placed in a
hollow rock at some distance from the beach, and Mr. Bates
was appointed purser, to apportion to each, without fear or
favour, his stated allowance. The goat was tethered with a
piece of fishing line sufficiently long to allow her to browse.
The cask of rum, by special agreement, was placed in the
innermost recess of the rock, and it was resolved that its

1 For the Term of His Natural Life